Sean “Diddy” Combs may be the only celebrity defending Kanye West right now.
The rapper and record executive, 52, shared his thoughts on Ye — and the “White Lives Matter” T-shirts he included in his Yeezy show during Paris Fashion Week — in a new interview on “The Breakfast Club.”
“My boy is a super, super, super free thinker,” Diddy said. “And often he means he’s misunderstood, you know what I mean?”
The media mogul added that people “don’t have to condemn or cancel Kanye”, but called the shirts “very tone-deaf”.
“I understand white lives matter, but it doesn’t,” Diddy said.
“[‘Black Lives Matter’] was our slogan. That was not our slogan not to share with anyone else… Because right now we are the ones who die, who are locked up, who are left in poverty.”
The superstar continued: “You must be unapologetically black and love your people first and love your tribe.”
While Diddy previously planned to release a T-shirt of his own in support of West, he said he “[needs] a few days to get over his controversial friend’s designs.
West, 45, staged his surprise catwalk show in Paris on Tuesday. A children’s choir, including the designer’s daughter, North, provided the soundtrack as Naomi Campbell, Amelia Hamlin and more hit the runway.
The “White Lives Matter” shirts infuriated many in the audience (and beyond). Jaden Smith later left the show tweet“I don’t care who it is if I don’t feel the message that I’m gone,” among other posts.
West’s ex-sister-in-law Kendall Jenner liked several of Smith’s tweets about leaving the spectacle.
“Hollywood Unlocked” host Jason Lee, who until recently served as Yeezy’s head of media and partnerships, wrote that his former boss was “gaslighting black people” while Jodie Turner-Smith labeled the rapper a “fake,” toxic” and “embarrassing.”
Gigi Hadid also jumped into the fray after West took aim at Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, who had spoken out against the shirts.
“As if the ‘honour’ of being invited to your show should stop anyone from speaking up..? LOL. You’re a bully and a joke,” Hadid responded to a post West shared.
As for the “Donda” rapper himself – who called Black Lives Matter “a scam” the day after he sent the offending shirts across his runway – he claims he met Karefa-Johnson on Tuesday and the pair “apologised to each other for the way we made each other feel” and “actually got along.”